University of Miami plans biotech center

July 9, 2009; Miami Herald; University of Miami plans biotech center; by Scott Andron.

Never mind the weak economy: The University of Miami is moving ahead with plans to create a 1.4-million-square-foot Life Science Park that campus leaders hope will spark a new biotechnology industry in Miami-Dade County. UM has selected a developer for the project's $80 million first phase, and construction is set to start this summer.

The university says the completed park eventually will employ 4,500 people and have a $253 million annual impact on the local economy.

But UM officials think the impact could be even greater if the project becomes the nucleus of an entire biotechnology industry for Miami-Dade.

''We still have a long way to go to catch up with cities like Boston, San Diego and San Francisco,'' Dr. Bart Chernow, the project's chief shepherd and UM medical school vice president, said Wednesday. ''But I'm hopeful and cautiously optimistic that we're on our way to make Miami a hub of biotechnology.''

The idea behind the park is that it would provide offices, laboratories and some shared equipment that biotech companies could use while developing new medicines and medical devices. UM researchers could start new companies there, or collaborate with existing biotech firms.

The park will sit on 7.2 acres near Jackson Memorial Hospital and the UM medical school, between Northwest 17th and 20th streets and between Seventh Avenue and Interstate 95 in Miami.

As a first step, developer Wexford Science + Technology will build a 200,000-square-foot research and development building at the north end of the site. The six-story building will include labs and offices for biotech tenants and several ground-floor retail spaces.

A courtyard ''Rain Garden,'' where workers could gather for lunch, is planned for the project's second phase.

The first building will be ready by the end of next year or early 2011, said Wexford Vice President Jospeh A. Reagan Jr. He said he already has spoken with prospective tenants and is optimistic about filling the place.

HIGH DEMAND

''If everyone who has expressed interest so far signs up, we wouldn't have enough space,'' he said. ''We're already looking at Building Two. There's quite a bit of pent-up demand for life sciences.''

One of the tenants will likely be the South Florida Proton Center, a $120 million private cancer treatment and research facility scheduled to open in 2012.

Dropped from UM's early concept drawings is a gigantic rooftop solar panel for the center. However, plans call for getting the first building certified as an environmentally friendly facility.

Reagan talked about the project at a forum Wednesday that was organized by the City of Miami to introduce small business owners and construction workers to Wexford and the developers and builders of several other planed projects, including the new Marlins stadium and new art and science museums. About 400 people attended the event, said William Porro, of the city's Division of Economic Initiatives.

UM's ambitious goal of creating a new biotech center that would rival hubs such as Boston will put it in stiff competition with other communities across the country whose leaders see biotechnology as a way of bringing in high-paying jobs.

In Florida alone, major biotech developments have been built or are in the works in the Gainesville area, Orlando, Tampa Bay, St. Lucie County and Jupiter.

Phoenix, Buffalo, N.Y., and Huntsville, Ala., have all been talking about biotech projects. Even Kannapolis, N.C., struggling to replace jobs lost in the textile industry, is building a life science park.

On the other hand, UM President Donna Shalala, who headed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, has pushed hard to elevate the university's profile and raise money. (She has already set a state record by raising $1.4 billion during a university campaign.)

The medical school's dean, Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt, has brought down a group of leading genetics researchers from his old employer, Duke University, along with millions of dollars in research funding. Chernow also has been a successful researcher and biotech entrepreneur.

And Wexford has developed biotech parks and similar projects at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the Penn State medical school in Hershey, Pa.

'BRING GOOD JOBS'

Shalala is counting on the biotech center to provide a big stimulus to the local economy: ''The life science park will bring jobs. ...More importantly, it will bring good jobs,'' Shalala says in a video promoting the project. ''You're creating new knowledge, spinning off new companies -- creating a quality of jobs and a job market that we have not seen before in Miami.''

http://www.miamiherald.com

sandron@MiamiHerald.com

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